The Frida Kahlo Museum, also known as the Blue House (La Casa Azul) for the structure’s cobalt-blue walls, is a historic house museum and art museum dedicated to the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. For me it is one of the best art places I have seen. It is located in the Colonia del Carmen neighborhood of Coyoacán in Mexico City. The building was the birthplace of Kahlo and is also the home where she grew up, lived with her husband Diego Rivera for a number of years, and in one of the rooms on the upper floor she died in 1954. In 1958, Diego Rivera’s will donated the home and its contents in order to turn it into a museum in Frida’s honor.

The museum contains a collection of artwork by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and other artists along with the couple’s Mexican folk art, pre-Hispanic artifacts, photographs, memorabilia, personal items, and more. The collection is displayed in the rooms of the house which remains much as it was in the 1950s. Today, it is the most popular museum in Coyoacán and one of the most visited in Mexico City.

Originally the house was the family home of Frida Kahlo, but since 1958, it has served as museum dedicated to her life and work. With about 25.000 visitors monthly, it is one of Mexico City’s most-visited museums, and the most-visited site in Coyoacán. Be prepared for a long queue and a long waiting time. But it is all worth it!

The museum is supported solely by ticket sales and donations. The museum demonstrates the lifestyle of wealthy Mexican bohemian artists and intellectuals during the first half of the 20th century. According to records and testimony, the house today looks much as it did in 1951, decorated with Mexican folk art, Kahlo’s personal art collection, a large collection of pre-Hispanic artifacts, traditional Mexican cookware, linens, personal mementos such as photographs, postcards and letters, and works by José María Velasco, Paul Klee and Diego Rivera. Much of the collection is now in display cases designed for their preservation.

The museum consists of ten rooms. You also can visit the formal living room, where Frida and Diego entertained notable Mexican and international visitors and friends such as Sergei Eisenstein, Nelson Rockefeller, George Gershwin, caricaturist Miguel Covarrubias and actresses Dolores del Río and María Félix. And of course the Russian Leon Trotsky while he and his wife obtained asylum in Mexico.

In the movie „Frida“ the young art student Frida Kahlo learned that Diego Rivera, famous artist, was painting murals at the Secretary of Education in Mexico City. Herself very much interested in art, she brought some of her work to him at the Secretary of Education and asked for his opinion: „You’ve got talent“, was his reply.

Two marriages and a lifelong love affair later, the love and hate relationship of Kahlo and Rivera lives on, along with the beautiful inspired work they both created.

The Secretary of Education building is located in the oldest part of Mexico City, El Centro. Free to the public and open on weekdays until 6 PM, more than 100 murals are on display. These murals represent some of Rivera’s early work. Surprisingly, these murals are on outside of an open air courtyard.

Diego Rivera worked on the murals for six years. There are three floors of murals to view. The murals on the bottom are older than the ones on top. The murals tell stories about the labor movement, the arts and traditional life in Mexico.

Diego Rivera’s birthplace in Guanajuato, Mexico is a great museum honoring the famous artist (the Marxist Rivera was persona non grata here for years). Rivera and his twin brother were born in the house in 1886 (Carlos died at the age of two) and lived here until the family moved to Mexico City 6 years later. The museum’s ground floor is a recreation of the Rivera family home, furnished with 19th-century antiques.

The labyrinth of upper floors exhibit a permanent collection of his original works and preliminary sketches. You also see references to his life with Frida Kahlo.